Aiden shrugged, so Gavin held his com unit and pushed the button. As he began speaking, his voice came from all of their com units. “Hello? Are you all there?”
They all looked at each other in shock. It worked! Aiden was grinning like a fool as he held them up. “I better make some more while I still have the idea fresh in my mind,” Aiden said. “That will be the last test if I can make more of them like this. I think it will work, though.”
When Oya Dihya and the others made it back up the hill, the sun was just setting, and Aiden had made a good twenty more of the com units. He proudly passed one to Oya Dihya before holding his own up to his mouth. “Hello, Oya Dihya! How was your inspection of the ship?”
Oya Dihya looked at Aiden and raised her eyebrow, but played along, pushing the button on her unit and answering. “Very well, we have completed the initial inspection and will head back to Jiada’s Turning now. Something tells me that you have crafted something different? I just don’t’ see how at the moment.”
Aiden grinned and held his com unit back up to his mouth. “Ashrak, come tell Oya Dihya how the new com units work.”
Oya Dihya’s eyebrow, if anything, rose even more as she looked in bafflement at her communication device. “How…how does it tell who to speak with? Is it when you say the person’s name?”
“It reads your intent,” Aiden said proudly. “It will let you speak to multiple people as well.”
“Amazing,” Oya Dihya said, continuing to study the unit and shaking her head. “I think these will do the job nicely. Very nicely, indeed.” She paused, looking back up at everyone. “I believe Duke Valeran will find these satisfactory. Let us return as quickly as possible. I think their investigation will prove to be important, but we must caution them. If there is an unknown creature involved as we suspect, I would rather Trelakor be more prepared for them.”
With that, the small group set off into the gathering dusk. Aiden had accomplished his task, but he was afraid for Trelakor and his clan. He hoped they were equipped to handle whatever they might find.
Chapter 6
Aiden watched as Duke Valeran clasped one of Trelakor’s lower arms, smiling up at the taller being. Trelakor was an Arakuul, an amphibious, four-armed humanoid whose race made up about a third of the sea clans that roamed the world’s oceans. Duke Valeran had known Trelakor and his Dawad clan for many years and was wishing them good fortune on their journey to the east coast of Terek.
For his part, Aiden had first met Trelakor at the Cutter Fish races that Gavin had invited him to earlier in the summer. It had been a spectacular festival of floating docks and ships from all over the world. One that had been interrupted by a massive trench serpent that had been intent on feeding on the large Tarfin herds the clans watched over. If it hadn’t been for Aiden figuring out that the Skywitch had a massive cannon, many more people would have died than did that day.
“Trelakor, you stay safe,” Duke Valeran said, patting tall Arakuul’s lower arm with his free hand in farewell. “Use that communicator any time you need to. I know you and your people are brave, but I don’t wish to lose a friend.”
The tall amphibious man narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the com unit but nodded. “Ah, now, my friend, you worry too much for us. We’ve been on the sea all of our lives and have seen all that she has to offer us. Besides,” Trelakor said, “we have our friends, the cutter fish, who are the fiercest things in the deep. I am not worried.”
“You know who is involved and they aren’t myths,” Valeran answered, looking over at Aiden for a moment. “Aiden has seen them more than once. There is no telling what they might have set loose on us. It could even be some sickness or plague like what is happening over in Caitrel and Banum.”
“Is it true, boy?” Trelakor asked, following Valeran’s gaze. “He’s not just spinning a tale to get me out of port so he can drink all of the Seulosa?”
Aiden winced, remembering the spicy milk drink he’d had last time he’d met the Dawad sea clan, but nodded. “It’s true, Sir,” Aiden said, nodding. “We found a ship washed up on the shore of Reid that, well, they think something attacked the crew that was unlike anything they’ve seen before.”
Trelakor frowned, his long thin mouth turning down in thought. “Aye, Valeran told me of it and described the burns. I wouldn’t normally put much stock in non-sailors, but I’ve heard nothing like that either.” He took a deep breath, turning back to Valeran and waving the com unit at him. “Very well, you old pirate, you can have your time with the Seulosa. We’ll just make more when I return and you know we make the best of all the clans.” Trelakor finished by slapping Valeran on the shoulders with his two upper, webbed hands.
Valeran nodded before letting a serious look creep over his face. “Just stay safe, and that goes for your clan too. If you need us, I can have some skimmers over to you in a few hours with armed men. Besides, your precious Seulosa will be safe. I will be heading down to Brun with Ashrak before too long.”
“Who will I contact if you’re not here?” Trelakor asked.
“Just think of who it is you want to reach. Ahnarad will be here, but it won’t matter even if you speak to me, I’ll just let her know what to do. That is the beauty of these com units. They let us talk no matter where we are.”
“Amazing,” Trelakor said, tucking the com unit into one of his belt pouches and grinning at Aiden. “What else will be coming from your wizard, I wonder? Perhaps he’ll make the fish jump directly from the waters into our ships, next?”
“Or better Seulosa?” Valeran said, laughing at the look on Trelakor’s face.
“No putting us out of business, Lord Wilthorn,” Trelakor said, mock shaking his finger at Aiden. “We’ll come live in your home if you do, and I know your mother would not appreciate that.”
Aiden grinned and held his hands up, “No sir, I don’t like Seulosa anyway, so it’s safe from me.”
Trelakor nodded and patted him on the shoulder. “Good. I don’t think a sofa would be nearly as comfortable as our ships. I’ll hold you to your word, but for now, we must be off.”
With that, the tall amphibious man turned and walked up onto the plank of his ship, calling for the crew to cast off and join the other three clan ships out in the bay. After it had released, several cutter fish came up and began pulling it out to sea, their huge bladed fronts catching the several hooped-ropes that were waiting in the water for that purpose.
Valeran and Aiden stood on the pier, watching the ship ease out into the water. Aiden thought he saw a girl wave to him from one of the other ships and wondered if it was Skay, Trelakor’s daughter, but wasn’t sure. It looked like her but it was hard to say as the ship pushed out into Westrun Bay.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Aiden,” Duke Valeran said, watching the ship fade into the distance. “Between what you discovered on the coast of Reid and the reports I’m getting from the east coast, it’s worrying me.” He turned, frowning at Aiden. “Your mother has also sent word that she is coming to the city and wants to speak to me. She suggested that you should be available as well, which I would highly suggest you stick around for.”
Aiden nodded. He did want to see his mother. He hadn’t been able to see her since they left for Reid last time, and that had been over two months ago. He wanted to talk to her about it and let her know he was okay, but he was also a worried she might try to isolate him from the danger, as well. The last thing he wanted to do was lead the Scratchers or anything else the Mourning Lords could conjure up to her doorstep. “Yes, sir, it would be good to see her too. Do you know if Jessop and Crean will travel with her?”
Duke Valeran shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s likely. She takes Crean with her everywhere, and if he’s along, I don’t see why she wouldn’t bring Jessop.” Valeran clapped him on the back, turning him as they both began walking back along the pier towards Captain Stelios and the rest of his guardsmen. “Also, those extra com units are helpful. I’ve already sent them through to
Riften though I’m hesitant to send them by ship’s courier to the other Duchies. I’d hate for them to be intercepted by the enemy.
Aiden frowned. “How will you get them out to everyone?”
“I am not sure,” Valeran said, nodding to Stelios and his men as they as they fell in around the Duke and Aiden. “We’ll send them by ship if we have to, but it may be safer to send them by a skimmer. It’s either that or put you into the dungeon to just make things. I’m fairly sure your mother would do uncomfortable things to me if I tried that.”
“I’m pretty sure she’ll do that after she hears about what happened on our trip.”
Duke Valeran laughed. “She’s already sent Ahnarad and I a letter describing some of them! After Riften, Ahnarad made sure to let her know everything that we knew. She was not pleased. Ahnarad is a brave woman, and I’d bet she put the best face on it, but even she’s a little intimidated by Tenadine. Your adopted mother is a very formidable woman.”
“I hope she doesn’t try to lock me away,” Aiden said softly. “I know you joked about it, but do you think she’d do it?”
“I don’t think so, Aiden. You are still learning about each other, but she’s all about duty. I think she’ll see your importance to us. Not that she won’t skin me if something happens to you, but she’ll let you try, I’m sure of it.” The Duke paused for a moment, his face becoming uncharacteristically grave. “Truthfully, Aiden, we can’t afford to lose you. Everything that happened after we arrived at Riften was…frightening. All those skimmers coming out of the sky and attacking the city was bad enough, but when the huge one came and blocked out the sun. That was beyond me. I know Reivus is over modifying some of my skimmers, but it’s taking him weeks with just one. We need you.”
Aiden looked down at the street as they walked. To hear an adult talking like this frightened him but this was what exactly what Oya Dihya had mentioned to him. He couldn’t afford to be a frightened child anymore. He needed to be better, so he nodded. “Yes, Your Grace, I know you need me, and I’ll do anything I can to help.”
Valeran gave him a long look but in the end nodded. “Good, and I will help you in any way I can, as well. This conversation reminds me of something else I wanted to speak to you about, Aiden. Fealty. What we just said to each other is what it means to be in fealty, Aiden. We help and protect each other, to the best of our abilities. You will be sixteen soon, won’t you?”
“Yes,” Aiden said. “In a little over a month.”
“That’s the traditional time for a young man to be able to swear fealty, but I have a bad feeling we will be busy with no time for fancy ceremonies, so,” The Duke spit in his hand, and then held it out towards Aiden, “Deal?”
Aiden blinked, but spit back in his hand just like he used to do on the playground as a child. It was both funny and solemn at the same time, but as he grasped Valeran’s hand, he nodded. “Deal,” he said, and it felt somehow right.
“So what is it that Reivus said he is going to do to the skimmers?” Aiden asked. “He didn’t tell me before he came back here.”
“He said he was going to add weapons to the small skimmers like the needlers on the Skywitch.” Duke Valeran said, grinning at him. “I asked if he could also include the large gun, but he said he could not. It was something about not enough power or capacity.” The big man sighed. “I need a dictionary because I have no clue what that means.
“I don’t understand much of that either,” Aiden said ruefully. “I think I need to learn a lot more about all of those odd words the Professor uses. I’m sure it would help me make things better.”
“Are you sure?” the Duke asked. “Your power is very…unusual. I’ve heard the engineers complaining about it after examining your skimmer. They don’t understand it at all and think there should be parts and such. Do you think that if you knew something had to have parts, you’d try to make it that way?”
Aiden thought about it as they walked, mulling that over in his head. Professor Reivus had said something similar to him not long before. The Skywitch had thousands of bits and pieces, but his skimmer just did what was needed. Maybe the Duke was right, if he learned how to make something with lots of parts, he’d waste his time making all of those parts, and he knew he couldn’t just do that in his head. It would be like trying to count the grains of sand in a bucket, and he was just as sure they didn’t have time for that.
Suddenly, he heard a shout from ahead of him and a loud rattling sound. He looked up in time to see a half-filled wagon racing towards them. There was a slope to the street, and the out-of-control cart was moving at ever-increasing speed. A few men were running behind it, waving and screaming for people to get out of the way.
Stelios and his men began to pull Aiden and the Duke to the sides of the street, but there was no guarantee that the wagon wouldn’t buck and roll, crushing them against the wall. Glancing behind him, all he saw were the wide-eyed looks of townspeople watching the disaster roll towards them. Even if the wagon raced past them, it still had the chance to cause massive mayhem.
He pulled his arm out of the guard's hand and raced towards the middle of the street. The guard called angrily after him, but the wagon was too close and bearing down on Aiden’s small body. Aiden looked up, staring at it in fascination for a moment. It was bouncing angrily due to the cobblestones, and he was struggling to resist panicking from the terrifying noise. For just a second, it overpowered his senses and Aiden almost forgot what he was doing until Glowby buzzed into his field of vision.
As if time slowed, he could hear Oya Dihya instructing them on how to face an opponent. Panic, she said, will kill you. Never panic.
He held up his walking stick just in time, his thumb firmly on the shield button, which caused the shimmering oval to spring into existence just before the impossible weight of the wagon careened into that inadequate-seeming barrier. He could hear Duke Valeran yelling for him to get out of the way, a note of profound despair and fear in the man’s voice.
But Aiden had faith in his shield even though he closed his eyes, gritting his teeth as the wood and metal impacted just a few centimeters in front of his white knuckles.
The wagon stopped dead. Impossibly, Aiden’s feet didn’t even move, and there wasn’t the loud sound of crunching wood or screaming metal that would have happened if the wagon had impacted something like a building. He had hoped it would work, but the shield had robbed the wagon of its momentum, so even the weight of the wagon itself didn’t cause its destruction.
It had worked. Aiden’s daring action had stopped the wagon and saved the people behind him. The realization crawled through his consciousness, and his smile was just beginning to blossom on his face as he looked over at the Duke. But why were things still moving in slow motion? The Duke wasn’t looking at Aiden but towards the wagon, his face a mask of alarm. He could also see some of his guardsmen beginning to point as well.
Aiden began to turn just in time to see the large shadowy thing moving toward his head. His shield was too low, and all he could do was watch as the barrel arched almost majestically toward him with two more flying even higher. At least those two would miss. He’d forgotten about all of the things that were in the bed of the wagon. This was going to hurt, were his last thoughts before blackness took him.
Chapter 7
He floated for a long time, ebbing back and forth between consciousness but as he felt like he was finally rising to the surface, he began to smell burnt peppers and sea grass. Was he in some kitchen? He didn’t smell anything cooking, but as he began to explore the sensation, the smells shifted to a damp forest smell.
It reminded him of something, but he couldn’t quite place it until it hit him. It reminded him of the time he and Ashrak had flown with Glowby when they’d first seen the Mourning Lord in Duke Feldar’s study.
His eyes flashed open, and he sat up quickly. The sight that met his eyes was nothing that he could have expected. It was foggy, and though he couldn’t be sure, the sunlight tha
t was just beginning to blossom into a soft white haze felt like morning. He was sitting in a muddy ditch, and as he looked around, his eyes came to rest on a man’s eyes staring glassily at him. The face was locked in some rictus scream, and it was both dirty and bloody from lying on the ground.
It was also only a head.
Aiden blinked and began crab walking backward, trying to get away from the terrible sight. The sudden smell of death and the acrid smell of a tannery, washed over him, almost overwhelming the vision of death before him. He finally stopped with his back to a muddy berm, and just stared at the head that was now a few meters from him. He tore his eyes from the gruesome sight, looking around to see where he was and he saw several other slumped, unmoving forms in his ditch.
It took several minutes for Aiden to settle his breathing. The dead, despite the graphic nature of their demise, were in the same washed-out gray scale he’d seen before when he’d been in Duke Feldar's study. It did not do much to lessen the horror, but it was something, and he was grateful for it. He needed to calm down and figure out where he was.
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4 Page 68